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Teachers of special children deserve adequate rewards

Teachers of special needs students are the unsung heroes as they encounter problems on a daily basis in their profession. One of them is the limited availability of funds and resources, they say.

While, the societies and local authorities are striving to help raise awareness on special needs people and are finding ways to integrate them into society, educators are often ignored. Most importantly, the infrastructure -resources and the support system for special needs educators - is currently not adequate.

According to Sandyha Perera, a special needs teacher at the Dubai Autism Centre (DAC) and a mother of two disabled twin children, "In our daily lives with the kids we not only face the challenges of teaching the children but other challenges as well like accessibility restrictions for the kids in the form of lack of ramps. Also when we take the kids out to places like the malls, the people who see us don’t know how to react to our physically-challenged children because they don't know anything about it."

Kariman Hamam, also a special education teacher, feels that "there is a large need for people to become aware about disabled children which is still associated with stigma within the region. I don’t think our social awareness and facilities are on par with international standards. There is a need to educate society and to teach the people how to see the child first before the disability."

It often can take as long as a year for a teacher to see any change in a physically challenged child but when they do it is "very rewarding," said Latta Roddam, a special needs teacher at DAC. However compared to the efforts and dedication put in by these special needs educators, the financial compensation is very low.

Mohammed Al Emadi, Director-General of DAC, said "Our teachers are paid less compared to other teachers working in private international schools. Their salaries do not reflect the hard work, dedication and effort they put into their work."

He said that the Dubai Autism Center largely relies on donations and funds despite the fact that admitted students are charged fees which do not reflect the true cost of running the centre.

Al Emadi also said that there were 80 children on the waiting list with more parents visiting and calling the school every day.

He said that the number of cases brought before them "are increasing tremendously". And yet they are forced to turn these children away because the school is in a villa which has a capacity for only 10 class rooms.

Latta Roddam said as a teacher she is often heartbroken when she sees "many borderline cases of autistic children at the centr e who would have otherwise benefited more from attending a mainstream school. However these main steam schools didn’t have the facilities or special education teachers and so they are forced to join special education schools where their capacity for learning is greatly affected."

"We cannot put two children with different conditions of a disability within the same classroom. For us to be able to focus on children with different disabilities so that both teacher and child can receive the maximum benefit requires more teachers and facilities which needs more funding that we do not have yet," added Roddam.

"The progress of special needs education here in Dubai is impeded because of funding," explains Al Emadi. "There is always a constant need for special education teachers to receive up to date training which is costly and can only take place when special education schools are affiliated with international organisations and research centres," he observed.